Friday, April 3, 2009

As a teen, I worked as a busboy in a restaurant with a piano bar. I was fascinated by the old drunks that sat around the piano every night "singing" to the show tunes coughed up by Morey, who wore a tux and had a phony smile cemented to his face. At the time I was in a band, a typical teenage rock star wannabe, and felt sorry for Morey. I imagined that when he was my age, he dreamed of throngs of appreciative music lovers at Carnegie Hall, or a theater on Broadway. He likely taught music lessons to dopey kids during the day to make ends meet.

Making a living as a musician is a nearly impossible task and most people give it up eventually and get a "real" job, maybe play in a hobby band at night. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, music is one of those things you do because you love it.

After a few years of playing weekend nights around the Southwest, I gave up my band to concentrate on becoming a cartoonist. It worked out well for me, I beat the odds with a lot of luck and a bit of hard work and have thanked my lucky stars ever since. I still love music, however, and though I was the singer and never learned to play anything, I still long to be in a hobby band. I recently started to learn to play guitar for reals, as the kids say. It's monstrously fun and I wonder why I didn't do this years ago.

The guitar in the cartoon is fashioned after my own Gibson ES-137. It is tied for my favorite inanimate object that I own, the other being my '82 Vespa. The thought of drunks resting their cocktails on it (my guitar, not my scooter) as they blather out the words to "That's Entertainment" (the one by Schwartz and Dietz, not by The Jam) makes me cringe.

d, you did? awesome. i was just thinking this today, i've been playing the piano for six months now and i was messing around on my keyboard this afternoon, thinking, 'gee, i finally got around to full filling this childhood dream of mine, so so many years later.' Just for the fact that i can read the notes and play music now, has been an absolute joy.

my favorite lately is this appalachian folk song called "the gift to be simple" by aaron copland. i love playing it. i've also been learning to play a little bach and chopin, and of course some mo'town...can't forget the soul! ;)

i know, i will probably never get to play lincoln center, but well as they say it's never too late. i play now not for anyone else, but just because i love how the keys feel under my fingers and how the sounds touches my ear; its a beautiful thing.

congrats d in finally starting to learn the gee-tar! keep on pluckin'!

I'm not going to be as harsh as FIDO, but you could have enhanced the story by saying that as an adult you realize that Morey was living his dream by beating the odds and playing music for a living -- and that he was regularly banging the hot cocktail waitress.

d, how dare you! has the golden girls taught you nothing? if that show has taught anybody, anything, it is, that even women over 50 can be sexy, uhm, hello rue mcClanahan?! that woman had more stds than a crowd of mtv spring breakers in cancun!